About

I began my intellectual life with an interest in mathematics. I have a BA in math from Wesleyan University, an MA in math from Tulane University, and an MS in math from the University at Buffalo.

I was working on a PhD in set theory when I encountered the philosophical puzzle of mathematical truth and undecidability: what should we say about the truth of statements of set theory that cannot be proved or disproved from the standard axioms? Wondering about this, I turned my attention to philosophy, and my interest in mathematical truth grew into an interest in the nature of truth and justification more generally. I did my Philosophy PhD at the University of California, Irvine, in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and wrote a dissertation on truth, supervised by Penelope Maddy.

Since then my interests have broadened, and my work now engages a wide range of topics including moral conflict and dilemmas, moral reasoning, value pluralism, philosophy of economics, philosophy of sex and love, sexual objectification, autonomy, rationality, ambivalence, desires, theories of truth and justification, epistemology, and philosophy of mathematics.

Over time I have become increasingly committed to trying to do philosophy in a way that shows its relevance to the concerns of everyday life and engages readers who are non-specialists and non-philosophers. My blog, The Kramer Is Now: Accidental Philosopher Encounters Modern Life, is one attempt to do philosophy in this way.

My next book, Philosophy of Sex and Love: An Opinionated Introduction, will be forthcoming with Routledge Press in March 2019. My latest research brings my interest in ethics and in philosophy of mathematics together in the study of economic reasoning: I am considering topics related to values and value pluralism and to the use of mathematics in application in economic contexts.